1992 Pacific Hurricane Season - Season Summary

Season Summary

See also: Tropical cyclone basins and Timeline of the 1992 Pacific hurricane season

The season officially started on May 15, 1992 in the Eastern Pacific, and on June 1, 1992 in the central Pacific, and lasted until November 30, 1992. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern and north-central Pacific Ocean. However, the season wildly exceeded these bounds, as climatological effects including an El Niño caused Hurricane Ekeka to form on January 26. Ekeka's formation marks a record for the earliest formation of a tropical cyclone in either the Eastern or Central Pacific basins. It is also the only known time that multiple cyclones had formed before the season began.

During the season, twenty-seven tropical cyclones formed in the Eastern Pacific (east of longitude 140°W), and twenty-four developed further and became tropical storms. Both of these figures constitute records in the basin, as the 1992 season surpassed the season with the most tropical cyclones (1982, 26) and the season with the most named storms (1985, 22). Of these, fourteen reached hurricane strength and eight became major hurricanes—storms that reach Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

This season had five storms reach tropical storm intensity or higher in the month of October, the only time that had happened in this basin. In addition, Hurricanes or Tropical Storms Winifred through Zeke are the earliest twenty-first through twenty-fourth named storms in a season in the eastern north Pacific.

The Central Pacific (between 140°W and the International Date Line) saw similarly high levels of activity. Eleven tropical cyclones were tracked by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center throughout the hurricane season. Of those, eight developed in the Eastern Pacific and crossed into the Central Pacific, and three formed within the basin. Two of the storms strengthened to major hurricane status within the Central Pacific's boundaries.

One of the crossover storms, Iniki, crossed into the basin as a tropical depression, strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane, and made landfall in Hawaii, becoming the most destructive hurricane in the state's history.